This is an archive of the former website of the Maoist Internationalist Movement, which was run by the now defunct Maoist Internationalist Party - Amerika. The MIM now consists of many independent cells, many of which have their own indendendent organs both online and off. MIM(Prisons) serves these documents as a service to and reference for the anti-imperialist movement worldwide.
Maoist Internationalist Movement

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THE MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT

MIM Notes 99

April 1995

Electronic Edition

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Get MIM Notes 99 from the Maoist Internationalist 
Movement (MIM), and get the latest in Maoist news 
and analysis - put a revolutionary weapon in your 
hands.

This issue features news of anti-CIA work at UCLA 
campus, Black Panther Party events on the East 
Coast, the Peace Corps, anti-NAFTA political 
fallout, Black and white economic disparities; 
plus, reviews, letters - and Under Lock & Key, the 
Internet's only monthly source for news and 
letters from revolutionaries inside Amerika's 
gulags.

MIM Notes speaks to and from the viewpoint of the 
world's oppressed majority, and against the 
imperialist-patriarchy. Pick it up and wield it in 
the service of the people. Suppor it, struggle 
with it and write for it.

* * * * * * * Send $150 for your full * * * * * *
* * * * * *  set of MIM Notes 1 to 100  * * * * *

MIM Notes 99 includes:

CONTENTS

 1. L.A.: MASSES GIVE CIA THE BOOT
 2. APOLOGISTS FOR GENOCIDE CELEBRATE WOMEN'S DAY
 3. PHILIPPINE GOV. TOLERATES SINGAPORE EXECUTION
 4. LETTERS TO MIM
 5. FREDERICK DOUGLASS NOW
 6. IN BLACK AND WHITE: ECONOMY UPDATE
 7. MAOISM AND THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY ON CAMPUS
 8. TROTS FORGET HISTORY OF EXECUTIONS
 9. MIM ATTACKS PEACE CORPS, LIBERALS DEFEND IT
10. CLINTON REASSURES LABOR ARISTOCRACY
11. ANTI-NAFTA POLITICS BEARS ITS UGLY FRUIT
12. GOANS BATTLE DUPONT
13. HYPOCRISY OF "PROPERTY RIGHTS" ZEALOTS
14. MURDER FOR PROFITS
15. RAMOS GETS PRAISE FROM BOURGEOISIE
16. REVIEW: KASAMAS
17. REVIEW: INSIDE THE PHILIPPINE REVOLUTION
18. "EYEWITNESS" EVIDENCE UNRELIABLE
19. UNDER LOCK & KEY


* * *

LOS ANGELES: MASSES GIVE CIA THE BOOT

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is still 
intact, but its attempt to recruit potential 
agents of imperialism on the campus of the 
University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) 
suffered a setback last month after a 
demonstration organized by MIM and the Network for 
Public Education and Social Justice (NPESJ), a 
student group not affiliated with MIM.

At a demonstration March 1, MIM pointed out to 
UCLA students that the CIA's main purpose is to 
wage war on the world's oppressed nations by means 
of economic warfare, rigged elections, 
assassinations and genocide. MIM's critics 
countered that MIM and the demonstrators were 
infringing on the CIA's "rights." MIM says: There 
are no rights, only power struggles!

MIM does not advocate disrupting the "speech" of 
just any reactionaries. But it's not the "speech" 
of the CIA that commits mass murder and 
oppression. If all the CIA did was talk, MIM would 
just argue against them. It's the action - the 
recruiting of students to commit crimes against 
the people - that we oppose. If progressives can 
stop the CIA from spreading some of its poison - 
make the CIA's job a little harder - that's a 
power struggle, not an infringement of "rights." 
The oppressed and victims of the CIA have no 
"right" to "free" speech when they are dead, 
imprisoned, exploited and raped. Theirs is a 
struggle to end that oppression and win freedom 
for the world's vast majority.

There is a long history of students resisting the 
militarization of U.S. campuses, including CIA 
recruiting, military training and the development 
of genocidal weaponry. This effort is an important 
part of building popular student consciousness 
against imperialism.


MASSES KICK CIA OFF UCLA CAMPUS

Many progressive people were dismayed to hear that 
the CIA was coming to hold a recruiting session at 
UCLA. Independently of each other, the Maoist 
Internationalist Movement (MIM) and the Network 
for Public Education and Social Justice (NPESJ) 
mobilized a progressive response which ultimately 
succeeded in canceling the CIA's planned two-day 
visit.

MIM circulated fliers and posters promoting an 
anti-CIA rally, in addition to contacting 
progressive individuals and organizations. Like 
MIM, NPESJ contacted its allies, encouraging them 
to protest the CIA. 

Prior to the CIA's arrival, MIM issued the 
following call:

CIA OFF CAMPUS

Despite its name, the main purpose of the U.S. 
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is to wage war 
on the world's oppressed nations by means of 
covert operations involving economic warfare, 
rigged elections, assassinations and genocide. Its 
goal is to gain and maintain U.S. control over 
Third World peoples and economies. In short, the 
CIA is an agent of U.S. imperialism and an enemy 
of the people. 

The CIA was behind the fascist coup in Chile which 
brought Pinochet into power. The CIA's "Operation 
Phoenix" killed 40,000 Vietnamese. The CIA 
recruited its own mercenary army to combat the 
Laotian electoral left, and covered up the massive 
U.S. bombings of Laos and Cambodia which killed 
over 600,000 and created a devastating famine. And 
the CIA continued its covert wars, funding the 
Contra-guerrillas in Nicaragua and propping up 
dictators like Manuel Noriega.

From 5:00-7:00 p.m. today (Wed., March 1, 1995) 
and all day tomorrow, the CIA will be holding an 
"Information Meeting and Reception" in UCLA's 
Plaza Building, at which they will conduct 
interviews for internship positions. 

Take a stand on the side of the world's oppressed 
peoples! Rally against the CIA outside UCLA's 
Plaza Building 5:00 p.m. TODAY, Wed. March 1

Notes: The CIA's Greatest Hits, by Mark Zepezauer, 
Odonian Press, 1994. Available from MIM for $6.

According to the UCLA Daily Bruin: "Organizers 
tried to find peaceful solutions, but ... the 
assistant director of the Expo Center, decided to 
cancel the meeting. Yesterday's recruitment 
meetings ...  were also canceled, irritating 
students who had appointments."(1)

The same Daily Bruin article contained some 
inaccuracies and some unrebutted reactionary 
statements from a CIA spokesperson, so MIM 
responded with a letter excerpted below: 

March 4, 1995

Dear Editor,

Thank you for printing the article "CIA visit 
canceled due to protests". Although this article 
contains unrebutted reactionary statements from 
the CIA, it will show many readers that 
progressives can get significant things done when 
we get ourselves organized. Those who came out to 
protest the CIA's presence can take pride in 
canceling their visit.

There were, however, some inaccuracies in this 
article. We take this opportunity to set the 
record straight. First, it is untrue that "[m]ost 
of the protesters were members of the Maoist 
Internationalist Movement (MIM)" or that the CIA 
meeting "was disrupted by about 20 MIM members." 

MIM visibly helped to organize the rally. But 
credit needs to be given where credit is due. 
Independently of MIM, the Network for Public 
Education and Social Justice (NPESJ) organized to 
protest the CIA visit. MIM is unsure how many of 
the protesters came in response to MIM's call and 
how many came in response to NPESJ's call. But we 
can safely say that the majority were not MIM 
members. Those present undoubtedly had varying 
degrees of unity with MIM. We were all united on 
one point - opposition to the genocidal CIA.

The CIA spokesperson quoted in your article 
claimed, "We're looking for people who want to 
serve the country and do some research, analyze 
and collect information." This is The Big Lie 
about the CIA....

The CIA spokesperson also claimed that "the 
students who were present at the meeting ... had 
their rights infringed." MIM doesn't know whether 
to laugh or cry at this ridiculous statement. The 
CIA is concerned about people's rights?!...

Since the CIA is responsible for depriving 
hundreds of thousands of people of their right to 
life, any CIA spokesperson who talks about 
"rights" - particularly the "right" to work for a 
genocidal organization - needs to shut up. MIM 
salutes the activists who kicked these creeps off 
campus. The CIA spokesperson says, "we don't know 
if we will be coming back to UCLA." Progressive 
people need to organize to make sure the 
Conductors of Imperialist Aggression do not 
return.

Notes:
1. Daily Bruin 3/3/95, p. 8


MIM DISREGARDS CIA'S "RIGHTS"

On March 8, the UCLA Daily Bruin printed a short 
version of MIM's March 4 letter (see accompanying 
article). Alongside it was a letter from UCLA 
student Rebecca Toth. Following are Toth's letter 
and responses from MIM and a student.

Rebecca Toth wrote:

This letter is to the members of the Maoist 
Internationalist Movement who participated in 
protesting CIA recruitment on campus and caused 
the cancellation of an informational meeting and 
interviews:

I am not writing to object to the validity, or 
lack thereof, of the information you were 
presenting; that is a debate for another time and 
I support your right to present it. However, I do 
object to the manner in which you chose to present 
it. Your actions effectively denied others the 
very rights of freedom of speech and assembly that 
you yourselves were exercising.

What gives you the right to impose your opinions 
on others and to take away the ability of each 
individual to make their own life choices? So you 
don't want to work for the CIA. Fine. But that 
doesn't give you the right to withhold that 
opportunity from others.

Perhaps democracy and the right to self-
determination, issues on which you are quick to 
criticize the CIA, should only be permitted on 
those topics with which you agree. Or maybe you 
should just choose for me which information I 
listen to and which jobs I take. Actually, I'm in 
the market for a good five-year plan. Next time, I 
suggest you take a good look at yourselves and 
your actions before you accuse others of 
authoritarian tendencies.

In conclusion, allow me to offer you a little 
advice. The next time you want to get a point 
across, I suggest you try a different tactic. Your 
gross hypocrisy and complete disregard for the 
rights and opinions of other students completely 
discredited yourselves and your organization, 
irrespective of the validity of your position. In 
spite of this, I support your rights to freedom 
and peaceful assembly; it's just too bad you don't 
support mine.

MIM RESPONDED:

March 8, 1995

Dear Editor,

Rebecca Toth's March 8 letter accuses the Maoist 
Internationalist Movement (MIM) of "gross 
hypocrisy and complete disregard for the rights 
and opinions of ... students." MIM values others' 
opinions. But this won't stop us from working to 
deny people the "right" to join the genocidal CIA. 
Toth objects "to the manner in which" MIM opposes 
the CIA. But our confrontational manner reflects 
the serious nature of the matter at hand: 
imperialist genocide.

Toth's charge of hypocrisy is misinformed. MIM 
disagrees with Toth's rhetoric of "rights." There 
are no rights, only power struggles. The CIA 
deprives hundreds of thousands of people of their 
right to life.  Toth defends the "right" to work 
for a genocidal organization. Progressives must do 
more to deprive imperialists of the "right" to 
build genocidal organizations.

MIM's criticism of the CIA is not that it is 
authoritarian, but that its authority is 
reactionary, repressing the world's majority. 
MIM's ultimate goal is a world without authority 
or oppression - a communist world. But in this 
era, we support any means necessary - including 
authoritarianism and armed struggle - to smash 
imperialism, capitalism and patriarchy. MIM will 
gladly choose a job for Toth before allowing her 
to join the genocidal CIA, if we have any say.

In struggle,

Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM)

As of March 10, the UCLA Daily Bruin did not print 
MIM's response, but did print a response from a 
student. MIM has much unity with the response, 
which follows:

This is in response to Rebecca Toth's March 8 
viewpoint regarding the canceled CIA interviews on 
campus. Toth asks the protesters at the CIA 
recruitment meeting, "What gives you the right to 
impose your opinions on others and to take away 
the ability of the individual to make their own 
life choices?

Let me respond by reminding that when someone 
makes a "life choice" to work for the CIA, this 
choice has repercussions far beyond whether you 
are able to afford the new BMW. All of us, as 
social beings, must take responsibility for the 
inherently social nature of our actions.

It is important to turn that question around. What 
gave the United States, through the CIA, the right 
to "take away the ability of each individual to 
make their own life choices" by: 1) overthrowing 
the democratically elected government of Guatemala 
in 1954 and funding death squads in subsequent 
years to protect the right-wing government; 2) 
working closely with the Chilean military and U.S. 
multinational corporations to oust democratically 
elected leader Salvador Allende in 1973, and set 
up a brutal military dictatorship; 3) or by 
playing a prominent role in the Indonesian 
military coup in 1965 which led to more than 
100,000 Indonesians being murdered?

I support the CIA's right to speak in public about 
what they do (although it is something I doubt 
they would ever do).

What I don't support is their supposed "right" to 
actively recruit people in their continuing effort 
to maintain U.S. political and economic hegemony 
at any cost. Complete individual freedom is a nice 
idea in the abstract.

In reality, sometimes rights conflict and I have 
no hesitation about violating your right to 
contribute to mass murder and military 
dictatorships in my larger effort to protect the 
rights of the people from other parts of the world 
who struggle to better their own lives, free from 
the often brutal, undemocratic intervention of the 
United States.

* * *

APOLOGISTS FOR IMPERIALISM,
CO-CONSPIRATORS IN GENOCIDE
CELEBRATE INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY IN AMHERST

Q: How is International Women's Day celebrated by
   First World feminists? 

A: By attacking the revolutionary feminism of the
   oppressed masses.

On March 8 reactionary scholar Patricia Edmisten 
gave a breakfast lecture in Amherst. Sponsored by 
the Women of Color Program of the UMass 
Everywoman's Center, Edmisten attacked the 
Communist Party of Peru PCP (whom she called 
Shining Path), and the revolutionary feminism of 
the oppressed masses.

Standing behind a podium draped with a poster 
bearing the words "Mar’a Elena vive entre 
nosotros" (Mar’a Elena [Moyano] lives in us) 
Edmisten presented a carefully blended mix of 
distortions, lies and omissions in her 
condemnation of the PCP and her praise of Moyano. 
Moyano was a government leader executed by the PCP 
in 1992 after she ignored numerous warnings to 
cease her counter-revolutionary activities. Not a 
mere critic of the PCP as some allege, Moyano was 
organizing her shantytown to fight the PCP with 
military weapons as well as personally denouncing 
people as "Senderistas" so that they could be 
rounded up by Fujimori's death squads.

Edmisten used the usual lie that PCP has killed 
30,000 people in their revolutionary war and said 
that the PCP has taken the most brutal of Chinese 
communism. First of all, 30,000 people have died 
since the armed struggle began, but by the 
government's own admission, the majority of the 
deaths have been PCP cadre at the hands of the 
government.(1) Second, Edmisten is trying to pose 
left by defending, or at least not condemning, the 
Chinese revolution while denying the reality that 
selective executions of traitors was also a tactic 
of the Chinese Communist Party in their war 
against Japanese occupation and then the U.S. 
backed Chiang Kai-shek regime. Apologists for 
imperialism can't have their cake and eat it too, 
at least not while Maoists are in the 
neighborhood.

Edmisten tried to portray Moyano as a pacifist, 
even though she openly admitted Moyano's key role 
in organzing peasants to fight the PCP for the 
military. Edmisten was unable to explain what kind 
of "pacificism" fights only one kind of violence - 
that numerically smaller violence of the 
revolution.

The major theme of her speech was an emphasis on 
the "commonality" of all women across class and 
national lines and to portray the Communist Party 
of Peru as anti-feminist and against the people. 
Edmisten said that while many women join the PCP, 
they are denied leadership roles. During the 
question and answer period, MIM was quick to point 
out that women are the majority of the Party and 
that they also dominate the leadership. We gave as 
proof the example that when Chairperson Gonzalo 
was arrested, arrested along with him were many 
members of the Central Committee, a majority 
women. We cited the New York Times and a lecture 
by Dr. Carol Andreas at UMass the previous year.

Edmisten's response was that Andreas has also been 
to Peru and that she had different experiences. 
One audience member supported this reactionary 
idea, and said that MIM had a different viewpoint 
and that was Ok. Yes, of course, people have 
different experiences and different viewpoints. 
But we shouldn't be paralyzed by them, we should 
do our best to make decisions with the information 
at hand. It's not that Moyano and the PCP had 
different experiences or different ideas about the 
solution to the People's poverty and that they 
should have just learned to get along. The 
Peruvian government, with which we include Moyano, 
and the Communists are engaged in a life and death 
struggle. Moyano responsible for the death and 
torture and many Communists and supporters. The 
PCP was responsible for the killing of Moyano. 
There is no neutrality, and that is shown quite 
clearly by who the Everywoman's Center choose to 
lecture on feminism. 

An understanding of imperialism is essential to 
feminism in the world today. It's not a matter of 
First World feminism "including" Third World 
women; rather First World women must realize that 
their group interests run directly counter to that 
of Third World women. If First World women want to 
join their Third World sisters, they must commit 
to working against their own interests. 

Study the effects of imperialism. Instead of 
coming up with lame excuses to explain Third World 
male migration to the cities ("to escape 
conscription by the Shining Path") find the real 
answer. The PCP is made of willing, dedicated 
volunteers, as the Peruvian military and the CIA 
complain, since they find it so difficult to make 
captured guerrillas talk under torture. Learn how 
the export-led development, supported by the 
imperialists, the Peruvian right, and Moyano's 
brand of "left" is responsible for the migration 
of men to the cities and the increased poverty of 
the Peruvian masses as a whole.

As our comrades in Peru will tell you, all issues 
are women's issues. To separate biological gender 
from material reality around it is a most 
horrendous kind of chauvinism that will result in 
continued misery for the majority of the world.

NOTES: 1. El Pais, 9/20/92.

* * *

PHILIPPINE GOVERNMENT TURNS BLIND EYE
TO EXPLOITATION OF FILIPINOS ABROAD

On March 17 Singapore executed a Filipina worker 
accused of killing a young boy and another 
Filipina, in spite of new evidence arguing her 
innocence. In the months leading up to the 
execution, people in the Philippines rallied 
against the execution and the reluctance of the 
Government of the Republic of the Philippines 
(GRP) to act on the worker's behalf.

Flora Contemplacion, a 42-year old mother of four, 
was convicted of the killings in April 1994. She 
claimed that she was coerced into confessing. New 
evidence showed that the man who had hired the 
slain Filipina killed her when he found out that 
his son had died in an accident. Contemplacion was 
best friends with the slain worker and was 
implicated in the killings when she went to gather 
her friend's belongings.

The GRP was silent about the conviction until this 
month. The GRP profits greatly from Filipino 
overseas contract workers and views tales of their 
suffering as nuisances which disrupt a booming 
labor trade worth billions of dollars. 

There are 4 million Filipinos working abroad. 
Together they bring $6.5 billion of foreign 
exchange into the Philippines - more than double 
the amount of foreign investment in the 
Philippines.

NOTES: NPR, "Morning Edition," 17 Mar 95. BAYAN 
International - PIGLAS, "The truth about the U.S.-
Ramos regime," 1994.

* * *

LETTERS TO MIM

GOV'T HANDOUT OR WHOLESALE REPO?

An Internet reader wrote: Where do you people get 
this bullshit? And how in the hell do you ever get 
into a college to talk to students, you are 
fucking communist anarchists. You people can all 
eat shit. I suspect that you are a bunch of black 
malcontents looking for another fucking government 
handout. GO GET A FUCKING JOB.

MC12 RESPONDS: MIM gets hate mail all the time. We 
are choosing to respond to this letter, however, 
because it appears to reflect the resentment that 
is apparently escalating in the white nation 
toward Black people in college, "affirmative 
action" and so-called "handouts". The implication 
here is that "black malcontents" should never 
"get" into college. If these people are upset, 
this reader assumes, they are looking for a 
"government handout."

MIM supports the revolutionary overthrow of 
imperialism, patriarchy, and the domination of the 
white nation over the oppressed nations in North 
America. The peoples of the Third World and the 
oppressed nations in North America are not looking 
for a "handout," but a wholesale repossession!

At the same time, whites have little to fear from 
so-called affirmative action or quota programs. 
The disparities between white and Black access to 
education and employment is looking pretty secure 
under the present system. That's why MIM says 
scrap the present system.

# College enrollment. Of high school graduates 
aged 18-21, only 30.1% of Blacks were in college 
in 1992, compared to 45.3% of whites. That number 
was only 24.6% for Black men, while Black women's 
rate was 35.2%. The numbers for "Hispanics" were 
about 2% less than for Blacks.(1) Black people, 
who are almost 13% of the population, are 11% of 
the four-year college students, and 6% of the 
graduate school students. White advantage is safe 
and sound, here.(2)

# Degrees. In 1991, Blacks got 6% of the 
bachelor's degrees, 4.9% of the master's degrees, 
and 3.1% of the doctorate degrees in the United 
States. What's worse, while the absolute number of 
Black students getting bachelor's degrees rose 
7.7% from 1981 to 1991, the absolute number 
getting master's degrees fell 5.8%, and doctorates 
fell 4.2%. The number of whites getting bachelor's 
degrees rose 12% in that time, while their 
master's degrees rose 5.8%. The number of white 
PhDs fell 2.2%.(3) While whites complain about the 
number of non-U.S. citizens getting degrees, and 
this number has increased, this represents more of 
a brain-drain from their native countries than a 
disadvantage for Amerikans.

# Official unemployment. Of people aged 16-24 who 
weren't in college in 1992, Black high school 
graduates had a higher unemployment rate (26.8%) 
than white high school drop-outs (20.7%), and a 
rate more than two-and-a-half times white high 
school graduates (10.5%). Black high school drop-
outs had 46.7% unemployment.(1)
And about "getting a job." First of all, you can't 
"get" jobs where there are none. Second, MIM says 
there is nothing great about working at a 
demeaning job for crummy wages, although people 
who do this out of necessity can be proud of it. 
While the organized workers of the labor 
aristocracy may strike when they want higher 
wages, the poor people who don't have high paying 
jobs in the first place "strike" by refusing to 
work in shit jobs at all. MIM says more power to 
them.

NOTES: 1. Statistical Abstract of the United 
States 1994. U.S. Dept. of Commerce. p. 173; 2. 
Ibid., p. 179; 3. Ibid., p. 191.


PROPOSITION 187: DEBATE STAYS LIVELY

A West Virginian reader wrote: I may stand alone, 
but I feel that there comes a time when you have 
to take care of "family" first! The U.S. is not 
responsible for nobody else but the U.S.! I grew 
up very poor in W.Va., We were always told that 
the government wished it could do more, but had no 
money. Then I found out that non-citizens in C.A. 
are receiving more funding than I did as a USA 
citizen!!!! Mexico should help these people, for 
they are Mexican citizens, and are paying very few 
tax dollars to the U.S. Charity begins at home. We 
have somehow gotten the notion in this country 
that the government has the huge pile of money 
that can never run out: well, we are wrong! Fix 
the problems here before we even think about 
starting to fix problems around the world.

A reader from California addressed him: Obviously 
you know nothing about California or its economy. 
Don't you know that the undocumented workers get 
plenty of taxes taken out of their pay. But these 
people never get to see a dime of their social 
security. My grandfather worked in the brazero 
program That was a U.S. program where immigrant 
workers from Mexico would come during the harvest 
season and work for less than minimum wage. 
Although he worked all his life and even though 
they took plenty of taxes from his wages the U.S. 
government did not want to pay back any of his 
social security.

In LA if you go into any fancy restaurant or any 
fancy home you will see one of these undocumented 
workers. If you travel north to the California 
farm country here too you will see many workers 
many of which are undocumented. Now what are you 
Good U.S. citizens saying? That these hard working 
people are good enough to pick your produce in 
sub-standard conditions. That they are good enough 
to watch your children. that they are good enough 
to clean your house, or prepare your meals. But 
they are not good enough to attend your schools or 
receive medical attention. Do you know what Mr. 
W.Va. if you don't want immigrants in this country 
why don't you and all your good U.S. citizen 
friends come down to Califas and pick our 
delicious table grapes while breathing poisonous 
pesticides for less than the minimum wage, that is 
if you receive pay at all.

While you're at it why don't you burn down the 
statue of liberty? You know the one that says 
"give us your tired helpless and week."

PS: to your family first argument "Those Mexicans" 
are my family.

MIM RESPONDS: Your comments are excellent for 
revealing the hypocrisy of the poster's 
statements, but you must admit he is consistent. 
There is a long historical precedent of privileged 
people maintaining that the people who are good 
enough to do their dirtiest jobs are not good 
enough to go to reap the benefits of that labor.

Your comments about the statue of liberty are also 
apt. MIM does not use the term "America" in its 
writing because "America" is a lie. What in fact 
exists is an Amerikan nation, built on stolen land 
with stolen labor, that continues the national 
oppression of the Third World, its members, and 
internal nations.


MIM MUSIC REVIEWS ARE DUMB

First of all, I don't listen to music for the 
lyrics, but for the tune and melody. As far as I'm 
concerned, the lyrics aren't worth a damn if it 
isn't backed by good music.

Are you saying [in your review of the Cranberries' 
"Zombie", MIM Notes 97, February 1995] that the 
Beatles were responsible for the youth of America 
for not turning to Maoism? Please, this is like 
saying that young people who listen to heavy metal 
turn into satanists. 

MIM RESPONDS: Of course not. If this were true, 
then there would be zero revolutionaries in 
Amerika because just about all the stuff on the 
radio, including so-called alternative music, is 
reactionary garbage. But music does both reflect 
the culture and create it, and a critique of 
culture is important.

Most Amerikan youth are not revolutionary because 
it is against their material interests to be 
revolutionary. To oppose imperialism is to oppose 
the source of Amerika's wealth. The reason that 
the Beatles are important historically is because 
they spoke to a group of people that were 
seriously considering radical change in society 
and the abdication of wealth procured by 
militarism all over the globe, and told them to 
think about themselves instead. The youth did not 
have to listen, of course. They could very well 
have stopped listening to the Beatles and worked 
for the liberation of oppressed peoples. Obviously 
people like to buy things that give answers they 
like, and this is a reason why the Beatles' line 
on revolution was so popular. And the Cranberries, 
posing "alternative," tell the same lies as the 
Beatles, and MIM calls them on it.

There is a small portion of Amerikan youth that is 
disgusted with Amerika and looking for ways to 
create social justice. The Cranberries criticize 
revolutionaries as "zombies" and advocate 
individualism for Amerikans. Of course, it is not 
the revolutionaries who are the "zombies," but 
those who buy the Cranberries' line uncritically.

As for your comments on heavy metal, this happens 
to be among the styles MIM recommends to its 
readers. (See "MIM's Heavy Metal Hangup" on page 
10 of MN58, November 1991, order from MIM for $2). 
We recommend metal precisely for the politics much 
of it espouses: challenging authority, the 
capitalist state, criminal justice system, etc.

Of course much metal ends in a celebration of 
youthful rebellion and refuses to focus that 
rebellious energy. This limitation of metal 
politics is indicative of the trend metal comes 
from: white youth, while alienated from 
reactionary old-people's imperialist politics, do 
not immediately see the importance of organizing 
for revolution. The anger metal expresses is still 
a valuable political sentiment, and MIM seeks to 
develop that sentiment and turn it into 
revolutionary activity.


AN OPEN LETTER TO THE AMERICAN FRIENDS
SERVICE COMMITTEE OF WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS

Dear AFSC:

MIM was shocked to discover that your organization 
is co-sponsoring the event "Sex, Lives and 
Videotapes, a public lecture by William Ryerson, 
executive vice-president of Population 
Communication International" on April 5. We expect 
as much from the pseudo-environmentalist and other 
pseudo-left organizations on the list, but not 
from AFSC.

MIM and the AFSC disagree on a number of issues; 
we are a revolutionary Maoist party, you are a 
reformist, religious based pacifist organization. 
But as such we have one important piece of unity 
that shows up in much of our work: opposition to 
militarism and imperialism. In fact, pacifists and 
revolutionaries have a lot in common in the 
current stage where the great majority of the 
violence going on in the world is not 
revolutionary, but reactionary and aimed at the 
great majority of the world's people. It is 
imperialism that is the greatest source of 
violence in the current world, and it needs to be 
exposed and defeated in all of its realms.

Wrapped in a stated (if not always sincere) 
concern for the environment, poverty, and Third 
World development, the issue of population control 
has come to the fore in Amerikan-left circles in 
recent years. The talk two weekends ago at Smith 
College (where we discovered your involvement in 
Sex, Lives and Videotapes) by Adrienne Allison, 
vice president of the Center for Development and 
Population Activities and adjunct professor at 
George Washington University School of Medicine is 
one such example.

Allison's main assumption was that population size 
was directly linked to poverty, development and 
environmental degradation. Her conclusion was 
therefore that population was directly linked to 
poverty, development and environmental 
degradation. She had a myriad of facts and figures 
to back up her "conclusion" and which served to 
further obfuscate the real source of the people's 
oppression.

For example, she showed us how population is 
growing in Nepal, and how 75% of the arable land 
is already being tilled. Assuming that amount of 
arable land is finite and that production yields 
can not be increased - this is an incorrect 
assumption because even capitalism can transform 
the world around it, and the collective power of 
the people unleashed under socialism can do so 
even more - this conception is still bourgeois. 
Instead of proposing to eliminate the people 
(already sterilization of women in Nepal is 
19.5%), why not eliminate the landlords? Or kick 
out the World Bank, IMF and the multinational 
companies? Allison didn't mention these things 
because as far as the bourgeoisie is concerned, 
the only thing on the table is the number of Third 
World people allowed to remain.

This is where Sex, Lives and Videotapes factors 
in. Population Communication International 
produces soap opera style radio and TV programs to 
encourage the use of population control 
technologies. In the Third World, the masses 
resist imperialist (with the collusion of their 
comprador governments) population control. There 
are many forms of coercion used to entice Third 
World women. Some women are paid to be sterilized, 
or are tricked. Population Communication 
International works in the cultural sphere to ease 
the transformation of the population and its 
economic base more into line with imperialist 
interests.

Women throughout the world want greater access to 
a variety of contraceptive choices but oppressed 
women need political power, resources, food, 
health care, shelter, sanitation and other 
necessities for survival. Imposing population 
control on Third World women while not addressing 
these other shortages will only increase 
suffering. 

Aiding and abetting imperialism is contrary to any 
pacifist agenda MIM is familiar with. We realize 
that you may have been swept up in the imperialist 
country chauvinist wind that is blowing alongside 
the population control issue. Enclosed is some of 
our literature on this question.


CORRECTIONS

A letter response on page 2 of MIM Notes 97, 
February 1995 said: "What is gender oppression? 
The definition is not a one-liner, but the idea is 
that one group controls the bodies, the 
reproductive freedom and unremunerated labor of 
another.  This is characterized by a situation of 
domination and submission. The one that dominates, 
in this case a biological woman, can be said to be 
gendered male for this reason." It is incorrect to 
define unremunerated labor as part of gender, this 
is part of capitalism. What is principal to gender 
is the control of another's bodies, and not merely 
biology.

The final paragraph in the article "Bombshell: The 
death of public housing" on page 8 of MIM Notes 
98, March 1995 was incorrect.

The following paragraph is the position of both 
the author Ulcer in the Beast's Belly and MIM:

"Soon enough, people may have to prove that they 
own property, or pay rent, in order to avoid 
imprisonment for trespassing on white Amerika. The 
people can take over public housing today - by 
organizing mass movements for economic and 
political independence inside the projects. The 
birth and nurture of militant movements can 
eventually lead to class-conscious communist 
revolution. In the final analysis, nothing less 
will do."

* * *

FREDERICK DOUGLASS NOW
performed and created by Roger Guenveur Smith

review by a MIM Associate

On February 25 at UMass Amherst, New World Theatre 
presented Frederick Douglas Now, a one-man 
multimedia theatre show. The theme revolved around 
the need for struggle in order to achieve 
progress. Through chronicling Douglass' life, 
Smith incorporated the history of the anti-slavery 
movement and the struggle for Black liberation 
since then. The most relevant aspect politically 
(in addition to the historical importance) 
involved the relation drawn between the struggle 
then and now. Smith makes it clear that the 
struggle for Black liberation is not over, and 
that the political advice and strength contributed 
by Douglass is applicable today.

Stated in the play was, those "who will be free 
themselves must strike the blow" and "slavery can 
only end with blood". Influenced by John Brown - 
who believed that slave holders had no right to 
live - Douglass was conscious of the need to 
violently oppose oppression. Yet he was not as 
focoist as Brown, who led a suicidal attack on (as 
Smith stated) the 1859 equivalent of the Pentagon. 

The words of Smith were enhanced by images flashed 
on a screen and also by African music. The video 
screen, used to portray a wide variety of images, 
was the main tool used to link the past with the 
present. By showing civil rights marches in the 
60's, Blacks being beaten by cops and riots in the 
90's the message of the necessity of continued 
struggle was clear.

Smith began by reading a letter written by 
Douglass to Thomas Auld, his former slave master, 
on the first anniversary of his escape. Through 
self-education Douglass achieved an important role 
in the anti-slavery movement - making many 
speeches as well as enormous written 
contributions. He started his own newspaper in 
Rochester, N.Y. called "The North Star", named 
after the North star people were told to follow by 
Harriet Tubman and the underground railroad.

A rap written by Smith concluded the performance. 
It started, "If there is no struggle there is no 
progress/That was the rap of brother Frederick 
Douglass." Smith also rapped about some 
"supportive" whites: "They love black music but 
they hate Black people/They love this rhythm/They 
love this rhyme/But when it comes to the struggle 
they don't have the time." "And some say to me 'I 
love Spike Lee'/But they don't give a damn if we 
are free/They don't know a thing about our 
history" And on the solution: "We must fight 
back/How we gonna do that?/We must learn to read 
and learn to write/And organize ourselves to 
fight".

Frederick Douglass Now is an effective fusion of 
history, politics and art. The continuity of the 
past and present is often left out in bourgeois 
education systems - which like to isolate the past 
to imply an irrelevance to the present (if they 
cover oppressed history at all). MIM agrees with 
the emphasis on the need for the oppressed to free 
themselves from their oppressors and the 
acceptance of armed struggle (when the time comes) 
to do this. The internal colonies within the 
United States cannot rely on the white nation to 
grant them their equality - because that will 
never happen. 

NOTE: NYT 2/19/90.

* * *

IN BLACK AND WHITE: ECONOMY UPDATE

by MC12

There is a common assumption that U.S. incomes are 
falling, that the gap between "rich" and "poor" is 
increasing, and that this is all bringing white 
Amerikans and oppressed nations closer together. 
This is the dream of the Amerikan pseudo-left, 
which is always trying to convince us that soon 
working class whites will become revolutionary. 
But a look at some economic trends over the last 
few years is not kind to this view.

The official poverty line in 1993 was $14,763 for 
a family of four. The Census Bureau reports that 
there is a lot of movement in and out of poverty. 
Only half of all poverty by this definition lasts 
four months or more, while 13% lasts two years or 
more. Whites make up 70% of all those in poverty, 
but only 56% of those in long-term poverty. That 
means lots of the "poor" whites are only that way 
temporarily. Still, in an average month Blacks are 
three-times more likely to be poor. Altogether 46 
million people were in poverty for two or more 
months in 1990.(1)

Some people make a lot out of the great raw 
numbers of whites in poverty. They usually do this 
to help gain public sympathy for the poor, which 
is just plain racist. Since there are more whites 
than other groups, it's always important to look 
at the rates, or proportions, rather than the raw 
numbers. Also, some people try the trick of using 
a rate that includes *all* people, then saying the 
Black rate is "even higher." That's just using the 
Black rate to boost the white rate.

In an average month in 1990, the Census Bureau now 
reports, 8% of whites received some sort of means-
tested poverty relief, compared to more than 32% 
of Blacks, and 25% of "Hispanics." So there are 
more whites, but Blacks are four-times as likely 
to be on welfare.(2)

Another common yet false assumption is that 
recessions bring whites and nonwhites closer 
together economically. In the 1990-91 recession, 
41% of whites saw their incomes drop, and 36% saw 
them go up. That compared to 43% of Blacks who 
made less, and 35% who made more.(3) Just looking 
at earnings is also deceiving, since they don't 
include all measures of wealth. For example, 21% 
of whites had no health insurance for at least one 
month in 1990-92, compared to 36% of Blacks and 
48% of "Hispanics," according to the Census 
Bureau.(4)

The patterns of job displacement during recessions 
are complicated and subject to a lot of debate. 
But if all the mechanisms are hard to figure out, 
there are some bottom-line results we can point 
to. For example, the General Accounting Office 
found that - in a study that controlled for age, 
gender and occupation - Blacks and "Hispanics" had 
a 15% greater chance of losing their jobs during 
the last recession than whites.(6) If you don't 
control for, or hold constant, those factors, you 
would find the differences were even greater.

Then, the results of losing a job were worse for 
Blacks than for whites. For example, of whites who 
lost their jobs during the recession, 56% had 
health insurance before they were fired, but 60% 
had health insurance at their next jobs! For 
Blacks, though, 50% had health insurance before 
they lost their jobs, but only 38% had health 
insurance after they found another job. So this 
tells us something about what kinds of jobs they 
are moving into. Those whites are not getting jobs 
at McDonald's.(6)

The Wall Street Journal did their own study of the 
recession, looking at the hiring and firing 
disclosures of 35,242 companies that filed with 
the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. They 
found that, among those companies, Blacks had a 
net loss of 59,479 jobs, while "Hispanics" gained 
60,040, Asians (including all subgroups, 
presumably) gained 55,104, and whites gained 
71,144.(6)

Finally, a look at long-term trends. It's common 
knowledge that the gap between rich and poor is 
growing in the United States. But a closer look at 
the breakdowns shows that the trend is different 
for Blacks and whites.

From 1970 to 1992 (controlling for inflation), the 
percentage of white families in every income group 
declined except those making more than $50,000. 
The greatest change was a 7.6% increase in white 
families making more than $75,000.

By contrast, the biggest change for Black families 
was a 5.5% increase in those making less than 
$10,000 per year. Also, 9.7% of Black families 
moved out of the $15-35,000 per year range, a much 
bigger decline of the "middle class" than whites 
saw. Blacks also had an increase, though smaller 
than whites', of those making more than $50,000.

So the overall trend in the last two decades among 
Blacks is a greater division between rich and 
poor, with the poor increasing faster than the 
rich. Among whites, however, there is an overall 
growth of the rich, and a slight decline of the 
poor.

NOTES:
1. United States Census Bureau 2/3/95.
2. USCB 2/7/95.
3. USCB 1/12/95.
4. USCB 10/31/94.
5. USCB 10/6/95.
6. Wall Street Journal 9/19/94, p. A2.

* * *

MAOISM AND THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY
SCARE COLLEGE ADMINISTRATORS

February 22 - MIM co-sponsored an event entitled 
"The continued relevance of the Black Panther 
Party" with the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist 
League and the Black Panther Party, Boston to be 
held at the Roxbury Community College (RCC). On 
the morning of the event, after already confirming 
the date, time and place, MIM received a phone 
call from the administrator in charge telling us 
that we could not hold our event at the school 
because we had not jumped through enough 
administrative hoops. The real reason: Maoism 
scared some imperialist lackey.

Months in advance of the event we got permission 
from the student government at RCC who agreed to 
set it up. A few weeks before the event was to be 
held the administration of the college got 
concerned and told the organizers that we would 
have to submit a written agenda for the event. 
After this was done, the administrator we were 
dealing with, Jean Ewing, who claimed to be the 
one in charge, gave us a date, time, and place for 
the event. 

So we went to work publicizing the event. On the 
morning of the event (which was scheduled for 3pm) 
we got a call saying "... Since I have found out 
that this is not an SGA sanctioned activity as I 
was told by [name], there is no need to come to 
the media arts center today because it cannot 
happen. I did not have a walk-through. I did not 
receive any literature about your group or what 
you're all about and I can not and will not go 
through with this."

We showed up at the school after hearing this 
message and demanded to know what was going on. 
After much pushing the administrator admitted that 
some school Chancellors were in town for the day. 
Though she did not say it, it was clear that 
either she or someone higher up was really 
concerned that it might not look good for the 
Chancellors to see that an event on the Black 
Panthers was taking place on school grounds. 

Only after some really fast work on the part of 
the head of the student government, who was very 
helpful through the whole administration game, we 
were able to secure a room and a TV/VCR at the 
last minute (the event started about 20 minutes 
late due to the administrative hassle).

Roxbury Community College is public property. It 
is funded by tax money and is supposed to be for 
the community. A lot of progressive events are 
held there regularly and we have never heard of 
anyone having to submit an agenda of exactly what 
will be done at their events or of a group having 
their event canceled at the last minute after 
getting administration approval, having a time and 
place set, and having done publicity. 

This demonstrates the power of Maoist politics and 
the fear that even a 25 year old memory of the 
Black Panthers can evoke. Revolutionary Marxism-
Leninism-Maoism is a true threat to the 
imperialists and their lackeys supporting the 
existing political/social order and the 
administration at RCC knows it.


BLACK PANTHER PARTY REMEMBERED

Boston - in late February MIM co-sponsored two 
events about the Black Panther Party with the 
Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League and the 
Black Panther Party, Boston. These events included 
a talk by a RAIL member about the history of 
nationalism and national liberation struggles and 
particularly how the Panthers as a Maoist party 
fit in. We also showed the film *The FBI's War on 
Black America* and this was followed by a talk by 
MIM, RAIL and a former member of the Black 
Panthers who was working on reforming the Black 
Panther Party.

The discussion after one of these events focused 
on the reactionary line of the representative from 
the Spartacist League who came to put forth his 
support for integrationism. The people at the 
event saw this for what it was: utopian idealism. 
Several members of what MIM identifies as the 
national bourgeoisie and national petit-
bourgeoisie were on top of the debate, pointing 
out the need for national liberation of the Black 
(and other) nations and the importance of self-
determination for nations. People also discussed 
the history of the reactionary white nation.

MIM was asked several questions about our views on 
the Nation of Islam to which MIM replied that we 
see the NOI as a bourgeois nationalist movement. 
Bourgeois nationalism calls for independent Black 
nation capitalism and understands that this goal 
of equality as a capitalist nation is impossible 
without fighting the imperialists. This is a group 
that, in the current stage of anti-imperialist 
struggle, is an ally of the oppressed in national 
liberation struggles. To truly work in the 
interests of the oppressed, these united fronts 
against imperialism must be led by the proletariat 
of the oppressed nations. 

These two events demonstrated the real interest 
among Muslims in revolutionary anti-imperialist 
struggle and education as the audience at both 
events debated the merits of Black bourgeois 
nationalism versus revolutionary proletarian 
nationalism. Many of the bourgeois nationalists 
were in agreement that they would ally with 
proletarian communists fighting national 
liberation struggles and saw their common goal. 
These comrades all made clear their desire for 
equality for all peoples, their solidarity with 
the oppressed of other nations, and their 
willingness to do what it takes to liberate their 
people.

* * *

TROTS FORGET:
HISTORY OF MURDEROUS REPRESSION AND EXECUTIONS

February 16 - At a Spartacist League forum to 
defend Mumia Abu-Jamal, the speaker from the 
Partisan Defense Committee (the Spartacist League 
"class-struggle, non-sectarian legal and social 
defense organization") said that if Mumia Abu-
Jamal is executed it will be "the first political 
execution since the Rosenbergs."

The Sparts missed the truth on this one by a long 
shot. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed in 
1953 during the McCarthyite anti-communist witch 
hunts. Among the most prominent of the political 
executions since the Rosenbergs in this country 
was the murder of George Jackson, like Mumia Abu-
Jamal, a member of the Black Panthers, who was 
assassinated by prison guards in 1971 because of 
his political organizing. The mass murder at 
Attica after the rebellious uprising there is 
another good example of political executions. And 
there have been many more obvious murders of 
prisoners who are undertaking political organizing 
and defiance behind bars since 1953. 

Between December, 1967 and December, 1969, 28 
Panthers were murdered by the state. This includes 
the well known case of Fred Hampton who was gunned 
down in his sleep in an invasion of the Panther 
headquarters by the pigs(1), and young Bobby 
Hutton who was murdered on April 6, 1968 by the 
cops (a member of the Oakland Police Department 
later admitted to the leaders of the Panthers that 
this was a planned execution.)(2)

But even this is too narrow a definition of 
political executions. What about the thousands of 
young people, mostly Black men, whose entire life 
is taken away from them when they are put behind 
bars for life? Or the many who are denied 
necessary medical treatment and are forced to die? 
These are political executions that are taking 
place every day. 

Many of these prisoners are behind bars for 
political actions, many are in for crimes they did 
not commit. There are also many prisoners who are 
in for "crimes" they did commit, but these are 
crimes committed in the context of an imperialist 
society that leads the most downtrodden to a 
situation that makes bourgeois-defined crime a 
necessity of survival, and an expected and trained 
response to an oppressive society. These prisoners 
are predominantly members of the Black, Latino, 
and First Nations who are denied a trial by their 
peers, forced to stand trial in the white nation's 
court. Prisoners are, by their very existence in 
capitalist society, political prisoners.

Political executions happen daily in the inner 
cities where the violence of the pigs is exceeded 
only by their violence in the prisons, and the 
First Nations are regularly attacked by invading 
imperialist armies.

This case of Mumia Abu-Jamal is not something out 
of the ordinary except in that he has not yet been 
murdered by the pig prison guards. It is a worthy 
cause to fight to save his life and MIM has done 
work to this end, but it is incorrect to single 
his case out as the first political execution 
since the Rosenbergs. This definition of political 
executions accepts the bourgeois definition of 
crime and executions and plays right into the 
imperialist lies and propaganda.

NOTES: 
1. The Black Panthers Speak. Ed Philip S. Foner
2. Revolutionary Suicide by Huey Newton. p. 196.

* * *

MIM ATTACKS PEACE CORPS,
LIBERALS RUSH TO ITS DEFENSE

At the International Women's Day breakfast (see 
article on page 8) MIM sat at  a table with three 
women who had been Peace Corps volunteers. These 
women had seen MIM's leaflets about the Peace 
Corps' role in imperialism. Their disagreements 
made for a heated discussion. (See leaflet text 
below.)

These three women were classic Liberals in that 
they refused to look at the material surroundings 
and saw only subjective intentions. One woman 
denied the possibility that Peace Corps volunteers 
could be aiding imperialism if they were not 
personally aware of imperialism. 

Another woman criticized MIM for saying that the 
Peace Corps is dangerous because it masquerades as 
"left" and sucks in well intentioned people. She 
called this paternalist, as she had investigated 
the other options before joining and she said 
others do so too. MIM's response that people need 
to look harder was not acceptable to the Liberals 
who hypocritically attacked MIM for having a firm 
position against the Peace Corps while their firm 
pro-Peace Corps position was Ok. 

Another woman argued that her personal growth and 
development was more important than the outcome of 
her actions. It doesn't matter what the program 
itself does, it only matters what people's 
individual experiences are. Liberalism elevates 
personal experience and subjective intentions to a 
higher level of importance than a much larger 
phenomena like the abusive history of the Peace 
Corps, a history which none of the women disputed.

One woman defensively argued: "What are you doing 
to help Third World people?" and repeatedly wanted 
to know if the MIM distributors had been to each 
of the countries they were talking about. It 
didn't matter how much research MIM did, as long 
as each individual hasn't been somewhere, they 
shouldn't take a position. The problem with this 
is that the Liberals do have a position, a 
position in support of the system, but they won't 
admit it. MIM says to let the bourgeoisie go 
unrebutted is to let them dominate.

The shortcomings of Liberalism were shown by one 
woman's rhetorical question: "How can you condemn 
a program just because it is funded by the 
government?" At each turn MIM was accused of 
oversimplifying the issues, but the real guilty 
party for that offense was the Peace Corps 
volunteers.

Even though the women saw the abuses of 
imperialism and it's version of "development" they 
refused to see its implications. Inability to 
connect intention, action and consequence in a 
reinforcing loop of political growth and 
responsibility is the hallmark of Liberal 
impotence.

Materialists understand the importance of history 
which occurs outside of the self on the scale of 
global reality lived in by billions of people. MIM 
is committed to understanding how exploitation is 
occurring not for the sake of "personal growth" 
but in order to eradicate it!


PEACE CORPS IS A TOOL OF U.S. IMPERIALISM

The following was distributed at Peace Corps 
recruiting sessions on the East Coast:

The Peace Corps recruits well intentioned people 
to "help people help themselves", but it's 
actually a program that helps to bolster Third 
World dependence on and subservience to the United 
States. "The toughest job you'll ever love" has 
also included direct and indirect spying for the 
CIA and other intelligence services.

There is a direct correlation between Peace Corps 
volunteers (PCV) deployments and U.S. military 
interests. "National Security Action Memorandum 
No.132 - signed by Kennedy on February 12, 1962 
and sent to CIA, USAID and Peace Corps Directors - 
instructed those agencies to 'give utmost 
attention and emphasis to programs designed to 
counter Communist indirect aggression [through] 
... support of local police forces for internal 
security and counter-insurgency purposes.'"

"In 1985, for example, the Philippines, home to 
the largest U.S. military bases outside U.S. 
borders, also ranked first in the number of PCVs 
with 399. Following close behind that same year 
with 379 was Honduras, a country-turned-military 
base in the U.S. war against Nicaragua."

Peace Corps propaganda doesn't tell you why they 
left Bolivia in 1971 or Peru in 1974. The truth is 
that "the Bolivian government expelled the Peace 
Corps for its alleged activities in sterilizing 
peasant women without their knowledge. The 
Peruvian government expelled the Peace Corps for 
similar reasons in 1974."

LAYING THE GROUND FOR DOMINATION

The Peace Corps exists to help make Third World 
countries more conducive to super-exploitation by 
U.S. interests. Former Peace Corps director Loret 
Ruppe refers to the Peace Corps, the World Bank 
and USAID all in the same sentence. The World Bank 
and USAID provide "aid" in the form of loans to 
Third World governments on  the condition that the 
country is opened up to further imperialist 
penetration. The Peace Corps provides valuable, 
on-the-ground public relations as well as helps to 
guide this political economic transformation. 

PEACE CORPS IS U.S. FOREIGN POLICY

A major point behind the Peace Corps' existence is 
as a public relations ploy for the U.S. Former 
director Ruppe called the work of the PCVs "a 
valuable source of real aid to U.S. foreign 
policy." The political flexibility of PCVs is 
limited: volunteers have been fired for opposing 
the U.S. war in Vietnam, visiting an off-limits 
Salvadoran refugee camp in Honduras, and a 
volunteer in Honduras was reprimanded for writing 
her Congressperson that "Honduras needs jobs, 
education, [and] health care ... not military 
aid." 

PCVs have been "required to collect and pass on 
information which, in the context of death squad 
politics, could result in the killing of the 
people whom they were supposed to assist." The CIA 
has been known to use Peace Corps cover to 
infiltrate areas. One PCV couple in Honduras "came 
under heavy pressure to turn over names of 'the 
communists' after their language classes became a 
vehicle for genuine community organizing." "It was 
clear," the couple said, "that the teachers [we 
trained] were interested not only in teaching 
skills but also addressing the real reasons their 
students could not learn: hunger, and the fact 
that young people have to work." This principled 
couple quit rather than talk. Other volunteers no 
doubt provide more subtle information to their 
superiors without realizing that they are serving 
as spies.

People who really want to help the world's 
oppressed lead better lives should work with MIM, 
not with the pig oppressors.

NOTE: This flyer based on Covert Action 
Information Bulletin #39 (Winter 91-92) This 
article contains 31 footnotes and is based on 
"congressional documents, presidential Executive 
Orders and from interviews with returned Peace 
Corps volunteers who served in Honduras, Ecuador, 
and the Philippines under Reagan and Bush." The 
article is available from MIM for $1.

* * *

CLINTON MOVES TO REASSURE LABOR ARISTOCRACY

It's early in the 1996 campaign for president and 
Clinton is making all the right elite-level moves. 
His unpopularity with the settlers now won't 
matter much a year and a half from now when it 
comes to spending tens of millions in spin media 
and collecting his IOUs from the leaders of 
significant class fractions. He wooed the 
internationalist bourgeoisie with NAFTA and GATT 
and now with the Mexican peso bailout, all of 
which prove that he is reliable in protecting 
multinational corporate interests. Now he has put 
organized labor in his pocket as well with an 
executive order that prevents the government from 
giving contracts to employers that hire 
replacement workers for strikers. Hence, while the 
prospects look good for Dole or Gramm to represent 
the imperialist-labor aristocracy alliance, MIM 
does not write off Clinton yet.

The executive order is a huge victory for 
organized labor that puts it on even more equal 
footing with the imperialists and tightens the 
alliance between the imperialists and the labor 
aristocracy. When the New York Times wrote about 
the executive order, it explicitly mentioned the 
hits that organized labor has seemed to take with 
GATT and NAFTA - phony hits only seen as real 
thanks to labor aristocracy image control. Hence, 
at least some sectors of the bourgeoisie are 
looking at this as the usual deal between the 
imperialists and the labor aristocracy - a trade 
of help in exploiting the Third World better 
through "free trade" in exchange for an even 
better labor aristocracy position at home: "The 
Democratic effort to please the AFL-CIO leaders 
seems intended in part to soften the anger against 
the administration for pushing through the North 
American Free Trade Agreement and then the General 
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade over the strong 
opposition of the nation's unions, which views 
these treaties as an invitation to American 
companies to relocate operations to low-wage 
countries."(1)

As usual, the discussion above of GATT and NAFTA 
ignores the low-wage workers within U.S. borders, 
which is a major hint that the whole issue is 
about the imperialist-labor aristocracy alliance. 
People within U.S. borders already receiving low 
wages were never threatened by GATT and NAFTA and 
like MIM these proletarians didn't care about how 
the imperialists arranged their trade. There was 
no way for the imperialists to turn the screw on 
the garment sweatshop or California farmworkers 
any further.

In previous articles about NAFTA, MIM has 
mentioned that labor leaders for the labor 
aristocracy would use the NAFTA as a bargaining 
chip - pointing to expanding profits abroad as a 
justification for a juicier deal for them. As MIM 
explained in 1993, "this is a common union 
bargaining tactic - to point to increased profits 
by employers, and then demand a share by claiming 
they haven't gotten any of the increased 
profits."(2) MIM had no idea just how far this 
would go - to the point of eliminating the power 
of using scabs in strikes in exchange for a 
tighter alliance to superexploit the Third World.

 - MC5

NOTES:
1. New York Times 2/21/95, p. 1.
2. MIM Theory 7, p. 127.

* * *

ANTI-NAFTA POLITICS BEARS ITS UGLY FRUIT

In previous articles on the subject, MIM has 
explained that the Communist Party and social-
democrats throughout North America are serving as 
"theoreticians of Euro-Amerikan nationalism" when 
they oppose NAFTA. Now the Mississippi KKK has 
proved MIM right. Spurred by months of agitation 
against NAFTA, the KKK is taking action.

The KKK is scheduling a March 25 rally "in an 
attempt to gain support for an agenda that 
includes repealing the North American Free Trade 
Agreement, putting America first in all foreign 
matters and abolishing affirmative action programs 
that 'discriminate against white people.'"

It does absolutely no good to raise the economic 
demands of the white working class. The white 
nation supremacists simply use vague discontent 
about economic conditions to suggest anti-
immigrant answers to economic problems. All the 
talk by the "left" about jobs going to Mexico, 
Singapore etc. only encourages the white 
nationalists, who turn around and support 
"solutions" like Proposition 187.

Whereas nationalism is progressive for nations 
oppressed by imperialism, in the imperialist 
nations, nationalism is reactionary. Economic 
harmony and peace are only possible when the 
various nations enjoy equality. Agitating for 
white working class economic demands sets back the 
possibility of economic harmony. World War I was a 
trade war that turned into a real war; we are in 
that same situation now.

The "left" theoreticians of Euro-Amerikan 
nationalism need to follow MIM's lead and focus on 
anti-imperialism and anti-militarism before going 
on to other issues. 

According to the United Nations Report on Human 
Development 1994, taken by themselves, the white 
workers within U.S. borders have the number one 
living standard in the world. The stupid white 
chauvinist "Left" doesn't understand that asking 
white workers to organize to improve those 
material conditions further is an invitation to 
reinforce its aggressive international dominance 
in partnership with the imperialists.

The Nazis, KKK, John Birchers and others of their 
ilk would be planning Hitler's birthday 
anniversaries and playing with uniforms in their 
basements if it were not for the economic 
credibility they receive from the white "Left" and 
elsewhere. Instead of pandering to Amerikan 
nationalism like the Trotskyists, neo-Trotskyists, 
crypto-Trotskyists and social-democrats, we should 
be neutralizing it. 

NOTE: Associated Press in Bay Windows, 2/23/95, p. 
18.

* * *

GOANS BATTLE DUPONT

The people of the Indian village of Karim, in Goa, 
join their compatriots of Bhopal in protesting the 
brutality of multinationals. In October, they 
demolished a DuPont factory that was under 
construction - and this was the third time 
villagers had destroyed equipment and buildings at 
the site. They are well aware that the factory 
would bring environmental degradation to their 
lush environment - and likely genocide. Their 
struggles will not be able to topple companies 
like DuPont and Union Carbide (of mass-murder of 
16,000 in Bhopal fame), but they are on the right 
side of the struggle. Their actions provide 
evidence that the Indian people are rising up 
against the imperialist system that has for too 
long considered their lives and livelihoods 
disposable.

NOTE: Third World Network Features Agency (of 
Malaysia), quoted in World Press Review 3/95, p. 
24.

* * *

BIO-PIRACY:
HYPOCRISY OF AMERIKAN "PROPERTY RIGHTS" ZEALOTS

Another example of how Third World countries lose 
millions of dollars to First World thieves: "bio-
piracy." Under this arrangement, technologically 
advanced nations transfer valuable plant and 
animal species from the Third World for 
development in their laboratories or industrial 
processing. The medicines and other products 
derived from the loot are then sold to the Third 
World at extortionist prices. Analysts put the 
lost royalty payments amount to $5 billion as 
about 7,000 compounds used in Western medicine are 
derived from Third World plants. The value of the 
stolen germ plasm to the Western pharmaceutical 
industry is estimated at $32 million per year. 
Small totals, relatively speaking, but repulsive 
hypocrisy from the arm-twisters that parade all 
over the globe whining about Amerikan 
"intellectual property rights" being infringed.

NOTE: East African (of Nairobi) 12/11/94, quoted 
in World Press Review 3/95, p. 42.

* * *

SHELL OIL AND NIGERIAN COMPRADORS
MURDER FOR PROFITS

Nigerian soldiers have been imposing a brutal 
crackdown on the Ogoni people, killing and 
torturing so that Shell oil can resume its 
operations in the oil-rich area. Shell denies any 
role in the brutality as Nigerian army plans are 
revealed: a "ruthless military operation," 
recommends the army major responsible for security 
in the area. Plans also included sabotaging Shell 
equipment and blaming it on Ogoni activists.

The Ogoni could be as rich as the Kuwaitis, but 
instead they live in poverty as dirty pumps on 
their land draw fortunes for Western investors. 
Since the imperialists are not about to let them 
in their club, only self-determination will get 
the Ogoni the means for survival.

NOTES: The Guardian of London, quoted in the World 
Press Review 3/95, p. 28.

* * *

RAMOS GETS PRAISE FROM BOURGEOISIE

by a New York prisoner

In the December 5, 1994 Forbes, a fallacious 
article was written by Andrew Tanzier named 
"Goodbye to feudalism". The article, about the 
Philippines and Fidel Ramos was filled with 
typical bourgeois distortions and misinformation 
about the current situation in the Philippines. 
The beginning of the article states:

"The 67 million people who inhabit these islands 
in the Pacific Ocean have finally been freed from 
the shackles of statism and its attendant 
pervasive corruption."(1) This is quite the 
contrary, the people of the Philippines have 
experienced more village bombings and forced 
evacuations in Ramos' first two years in office 
than the entire Marcos dictatorship.(2) Tanzier 
correctly puts Fidel Ramos in his proper category 
with other brutal dictators, but notice the 
language: "Inspired and instructed by other 
political leaders like Suharto of Indonesia, 
Carlos Menem of Argentina, Carlos Salinas of 
Mexico, Augusto Pinochet of Chile, Fidel Ramos, 
elected Philippines president in 1992, is steadily 
dismantling the outmoded protectionism that bound 
his country, allowing individual enterprise to 
work its magic." This magic is manifested by the 
displacement of over two million peasants by the 
Armed Forces of the Philippines.(2) 

The bourgeoisie sure has a way with words but then 
again I guess the U.S.-Ramos regime does perform 
some kind of "magic" when it "disappears" people 
obviously by "magicians" (read: death squads).

As the article is typical of painting Fidel Ramos 
as some type of new improved nice guy. Tanzier 
overdoes the praises when he says "Fidel Ramos is 
cut from a different cloth. A product of his 
country's small middle class, he has no love for 
the oligarch or reason to protect their 
interest."(1) If this is so then why did Ramos 
receive an endorsement and funding from the U.S. 
empire for the 1992 elections? I'm sure the U.S. 
empire will not endorse or fund a person or regime 
that will not make an atmosphere conducive to 
"protect" their financial "interest" and on top of 
that Fidel Ramos is an offspring of the oligarchy. 

"Ramos was one of the 'Rolex-12' - one of the 12 
with whom Ferdinand Marcos planned the imposition 
of Martial Law in 1972.... [Ramos] commanded 
Marcos' abusive and corrupt national police force, 
the Philippine Constabulary (PC).... He created 
the Barrio Self Defense Unit (BSDU) a para-
military vigilante group which attacked democratic 
and national organizers."(2) 

Although Ramos likes to portray himself as a 
peacemaker, he has "made it clear that martial law 
would suit him just fine." On the one hand he 
talks about amnesty for the Moro fighting for 
self-determination - but on the other, he sends in 
the Philippine Army's 30th Infantry into Mindanao 
which has resulted in the disappearance of six 
residents and the removal of 35 families.(1)

What more could we expect from a bourgeois 
magazine but to undermine the people's struggle 
and make a fascist like Fidel Ramos look like some 
type of good guy. Of course throughout the article 
Tanzier gives statistics and quotes to which he 
gives no reference to where he got his information 
so one will be completely lost if one knows 
nothing about the Philippines but then that's 
exactly what the bourgeoisie intends to do, lose 
you in a bunch of equivocalities. This is why we 
as an oppressed people must strive to build our 
own institutions such as media, in order to expose 
the bourgeoisie and their disinformation tactics. 
So help build MIM to battle the bourgeoisie on all 
fronts.

NOTES:
1. Forbes 12/5/94.
2. MIM Notes 94, November 94.

* * *

REVIEW: KASAMAS SHOWS DAILY LIFE IN BASE AREAS

Kasamas is a documentary detailing daily life in 
the liberated base areas of the Philippines. The 
film was made in 1988, before the rectification; 
it is instructive in terms of showing daily 
interactions of the NPA (New People's Army) with 
the masses. However, one major weakness of the 
documentary is that it does not show the process 
of struggle through which agreement is reached as 
well as a lack of overall context for the scenes 
shown.

Families are interviewed about their relationship 
with the NPA. The peasants contrast the treatment 
that they receive by the fascist military with the 
treatment of the peasants by the NPA. The peasants 
interviewed said that they had been taught that 
the NPA were terrorists that rape women and cut 
innocent people's heads off. Other villagers that 
were interviewed said that the NPA has mass 
support because of what they do for the 
communities. This was contrasted to the army which 
was characterized as soldiers who will do anything 
for money. 

One illustration of how the NPA works in the 
villages was to help the villagers solve crimes 
and hold people accountable. The villager said 
that one specific theft, that of a water buffalo, 
would not have been solved without the NPA. The 
thief promised the NPA that he would not steal 
from his community again but the documentary did 
not show how the NPA reached agreement with this 
peasant specifically. 

The long term way to reduce crimes within a 
community is to change the material conditions. We 
see the NPA do this as they organize the peasants 
to build collective work projects as well as 
confront their landlords for a better share of 
what is produced.

In one section of the film, NPA cadre were seen 
talking to the women of the community telling them 
that "if men are oppressed, we are doubly 
oppressed". The meetings of the women served to 
discuss ways in which women would work together to 
fight for their interests as a part of the 
struggle.

The peasants in one area organized to confront 
their landlord. They organized a meeting to ask 
all of the farmers what issues they wanted to 
bring up with the landlord when they approached 
him. One farmer said that he was afraid that the 
army would come in or that the landlord would just 
throw them off the land. As a group, the farmers 
decided that they would ask the landlord to lower 
their rent to 1/3 of the harvest after production 
costs were taken out. Currently, the landlord gets 
2/3 of the harvest before production costs are 
calculated. 

After the peasants worked on an agreement, they 
approached the NPA to brief them and explain what 
they expected from the NPA - defense in the case 
of army intervention. The NPA also gave the 
farmers a few suggestions for what they should do 
when they approached the landlord. The first time 
that the farmers confronted the landlord, he said 
that he was the owner and could do what he wanted 
and he threatened to throw them off the land. The 
farmers said that all they wanted was a just 
relationship with the landlord. The documentary 
did not show the process of struggle extensively, 
but ultimately, the landlord agreed "out of pity" 
to a 50/50 arrangement.

Kasamas documented the NPA's development of 
collective projects and farming that benefited the 
people that worked on them as well as the 
community in general. This is one of the more 
exciting parts of the film - showing people 
working together, pooling resources, and profiting 
from their work. It was not totally clear from the 
film, but this was apparently abandoned land that 
had no landlord to suck the profits away.

The documentary also showed the importance of 
correct relations between the masses and the NPA. 
One comrade hit a peasant while trying to stop him 
from beating his wife. For this he was suspended 
from the Party for six months and was restricted 
from carrying a gun for that period. Here the 
weakness of the film is that the process of self-
criticism was not shown. We only see criticism of 
this soldier's actions, not an explanation of what 
a better action would have been. The process 
through which Maoists resolve problems is a much 
more effective way which deals with the root of 
the problem, and this film would have been better 
if the process of struggling to find the most 
appropriate solution was documented.

The end of the film showed an NPA tactical 
offensive. The NPA was victorious in gaining more 
arms for the People's War. 

In this part, there was also a comrade that was 
wounded. Another documentary - *Medics of the 
People* - shows how the NPA organized cadres and 
peasants with little education to take care of the 
sick and wounded victims of the war against the 
military. To organize talks or film showings about 
the Filipino revolution, contact MIM.

* * *

A RUSTLING OF LEAVES:
INSIDE THE PHILIPPINE REVOLUTION
1988
By Nettie Wild

REVIEW BY MC234

*A rustling of leaves: Inside the Philippine 
revolution* is a good overview of the revolution 
in the Philippines. This almost 2 hour video shows 
the revolutionaries in the countryside and the 
cities as well as the legal left and explains the 
connection between U.S. imperialism, the Filipino 
government and right-wing vigilantes. Filmed about 
a year after Aquino's rise to power, the video 
demonstrates that Aquino's promises, as that of 
the government before her, were worthless. 

Aquino may have "won" at the ballot box, but she 
got to be President because of the military. When 
Marcos refused to step down, the military switched 
sides, sensing that Marcos was becoming more of a 
liability than an asset. Showing who is in 
control, the video explains how there were four 
military coups against Aquino in the first year of 
her presidency, and after each she had to dismiss 
a leading "leftist" from her cabinet to regain the 
military's support. 

The film starts with a description of the wages of 
sugar workers ($1/day) and moves to Davao City, 
the capital of Mindanao for an interview with 
radio DJ Jun Pala. Pala is a leader of the 
vigilante group, Alsa Masa. He openly compares 
himself and his radio practice to that of 
Goebbels, Hitler's minister of propaganda as he 
proudly calls out the names of communist 
sympathizers to his vigilantes.

Classing the People's War as a low-intensity 
conflict, the imperialist strategy of using 
civilians as cannon fodder was explained. In 
addition to the Alsa Masa, we are also shown the 
Tad Tads (Chop Chops). They are called this 
because they carry machetes and are known for 
decapitating their communist victims. 

Most vividly, the video shows a funeral for a 
union organizer killed by Tad  Tads, and 
interviews the Tad Tad commander, Armed Forces of 
the Philippines Lt. de la Rosa. He says that his 
Tad Tads did not commit the killing. When asked 
what he was going to do to prevent future 
killings, he said he would keep his Tad Tads from 
roaming around. When pushed on this contradiction, 
he reported that he had received reports (from his 
own Tad Tads!) that his own men were responsible 
for the killings. 

Government support for the Alsa Masa and Tad Tads 
is not only military but political. Cory Aquino 
said of the Alsa Masa at a rally "We look up to 
you in our fight against communism." U.S. 
Secretary of State Shultz argued that the Alsa 
Masa are not vigilantes, but are organized by the 
military and that he supports the idea. So much 
for Jun Pala's idea that the Alsa Masa and the Tad 
Tads are the real people's movement.

The video also travels to the countryside on the 
island of Mindanao where we meet Father Frank 
Navarro and other NPA soldiers. We see Comrade 
Dadung who helps set up revolutionary governments 
in the liberated areas. We see how people's 
justice is carried out, as the NPA takes the case 
of a recaptured turncoat NPA soldier to the 
masses. A court of the masses must make the 
decision as to whether former soldier should be 
expelled or executed.

The video also gives a lot of attention to the 
legal left, particularly the campaign for 
Philippine Senate of former political prisoner and 
NPA founder Dante Buscayno. It was interesting to 
see how the legal left interacts politically with 
the revolutionary underground. Buscayno defends 
communism in the abstract, but late in the 
campaign, attacks the urban armed movement for 
encouraging vigilante attacks. For this Buscayno 
is criticized by the revolution as being an 
"armchair revolutionary". Buscayno exposes his no 
longer revolutionary politics even clearer at the 
end of the film were he says that armed struggle 
must be secondary to the legal struggle. Maoists 
disagree on both of these points. First, reality 
is that the reactionaries will strike back at the 
revolutionaries, but People's War allows the 
revolutionary strength to grow with each blow and 
with a corresponding decrease in reactionary 
strength. Secondly, the legal struggle can help 
build public opinion for the revolution, but the 
legal struggle can not make the crucial 
transformations needed in society. 

The greatest weakness of *Leaves* is that it fails 
to explain the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist theory and 
practice of the Communist Party of the Philippines 
(CPP). The focus is on the NPA, and while the 
narrator tells us that the NPA is led by 
Communists, it is only fascist Jun Pala who tells 
us that the CPP is Marxist-Leninist. Nowhere do we 
see a treatment of ideological questions such as 
People's War or the mass line. Some of the blame 
for this must go to the CPP, however, which in the 
mid-1980s began to deviate from Maoism. 

After suffering serious losses, the CPP began an 
internal struggle in 1988 and a full-scale 
rectification campaign in 1992, to return to its 
Maoist roots. With rectification 3 years old, and 
this video now 7, MIM hopes that this film maker 
will return to the Philippines to produce another 
excellent video.

* * *

RESEARCH SHOWS "EYEWITNESS" EVIDENCE UNRELIABLE:
LIBERALS CAN'T SEE CONCLUSION TO THEIR DATA

The U.S. justice system claims to seek and punish 
the guilty for crime while leaving innocent 
individuals free. MIM does not share this 
objective, because the facts show that crime stems 
from how a society is organized, not how the 
system assesses individuals. Now there is also 
evidence from several studies that shows that the 
system cannot even punish the right people, never 
mind reduce crime. A recent case involving a man 
falsely convicted of rape and who died of a heart 
attack in the process of clearing his name caused 
the New York Times to publish a summary of the 
academic evidence. 

"A 1993 review of 1,000 convictions of people who 
were later found to be not guilty revealed that 
eyewitness errors were the single largest factor, 
accounting for about half the cases." At least 
80,000 trials a year rely on eyewitnesses for 
evidence. 

Experiments show that the ruling class has 
successfully brainwashed the public into blaming 
someone for crime - anyone - once a crime has 
happened. For example, in an experiment with a 
staged theft with 100 eyewitnesses, the 
eyewitnesses faced a police lineup that did not 
include the perpetrator. 21 eyewitnesses still 
picked someone from the lineup. In a similar 
study, even when the eyewitnesses knew that the 
criminal might not be in the lineup, 33% still 
picked the wrong person. 

The U.S. justice system is supposedly based on 
convicting people based on proof "beyond a 
reasonable doubt." Since 21% of the time an 
eyewitness will pick someone from a lineup when 
the actual criminal was not even in the lineup, 
there is always "reasonable doubt" in the system. 
Cases based on eyewitnesses would seem to be 
subject to perpetual "reasonable doubt." 

From the Liberals' point of view, "it is a 
nightmare for the innocent person, while the 
actual culprit remains at large." They are 
frustrated by not being able to gauge individuals 
accurately. In contrast, MIM does not base its 
strategy against crime on the individualist 
premise of judging each person one at a time. We 
are going to organize society to cut the crime 
rate to 10% of what it is now just as China under 
Mao succeeded in doing. 

The figures for picking the right person from the 
lineup are no better when the actual perpetrator 
is in the lineup. Researchers divided eyewitnesses 
into two groups - people who were sure and pointed 
quickly and those who had to think about it. 

Among the eyewitnesses sure they found the 
culprit, only 70% picked the right person from the 
lineup; 30% were wrong. Among the eyewitnesses who 
reasoned their way to a conclusion, the accuracy 
rate was only 30%; 70% of the time, these 
eyewitnesses picked the wrong person. 

To make matters worse, there is "monkey-see-
monkey-do" effect. Witnesses who knew there were 
other witnesses became more confident. This 
confidence turns out to have no relationship to 
accuracy. 

Despite these studies, police do not always put 
people with similar features in the line-ups to 
force eyewitnesses to make hard choices. They go 
on using the same methods despite these studies 
that have come out from 1981 to 1993. 

The hypocritical Liberals who lead these studies 
see the abysmal figures, but they cling 
desperately to an asinine system. "'Police are 
skeptical when I present these findings,' said Dr. 
Wells. 'They're afraid of making witnesses overly 
cautious. They want convictions, not cautious 
witnesses. But we find the right procedures 
minimize false identifications while leaving the 
accurate ones unchanged. If the culprit is there, 
they'll spot him.'" Seeking respectability with 
the police - within the system - these 
individualists refuse to face the facts they 
gathered. 

The truth is that the system only claims to punish 
the appropriate individuals to bolster its own 
legitimacy. In actuality, the police and even the 
researchers don't care about the obvious facts 
that have made the fascism-crazed settlers of this 
society willing to convict anyone without any 
evidence. The ruling class is not threatened by 
these matters, because the danger falls on the 
common people, mostly the poor and oppressed 
nationalities. The rich simply buy their way out 
of prison if the cops ever make the mistake of 
arresting them in the first place. The rich also 
don't have to worry, because theft of bread and 
murder of individuals is a crime, but white collar 
criminals who embezzle funds serve in cushy 
prisons if they serve at all, and criminals who 
put poisons into the environment that kill more 
than 20 times as many people as killed by so-
called murder go free. The ruling class doesn't 
care if it convicts the right person, because the 
imperialist government only imprisons people to 
repress the poor and national minorities. 

NOTE: New York Times 1/17/95, p. C1, C6. 

* * *

UNDER LOCK & KEY

OREGON CENSORS MIM NOTES

Mail ... is in violation of Department of 
Corrections Rule governing Mail (Inmate). The 
material has been rejected because it Contains 
material that threatens or is detrimental to the 
security, good order, or discipline of the 
facility, or facilitates criminal activity. 
Specific article(s) and page number(s) or 
material(s) considered objectionable: Maoist 
International [sic] Movement (MIM) Jan. 1995 #96, 
page two, "What is MIM?" Promote of armed 
revolution.

 - Oregon State Corr. Institution, 2/3/95


PRISONERS ABUSED IN CALIFORNIA PRISONS

Greetings. I'm writing from Pelican Bay State 
Prison's Security Housing Unit (SHU), where I'm 
serving 30 years plus 25-to-life. I just read MIM 
Notes 93 (10/94), which contained some accounts of 
torture and inhumanity being perpetrated in 
Amerika's prisons. I was glad to find a 
publication where these truths and realities are 
being printed, and figured I had a duty to 
immediately write you a letter to make known my 
own experiences in the California Department of 
Corrections (CDC) at Folsom Prison.

I arrived at Folsom in March 1991 and soon found 
myself in administrative segregation (ad-seg), 
"the Hole." Why? For exercising my Constitutional 
rights of free speech in a letter to an ACLU 
attorney, in which I was complaining about 
conditions at the prison. We were on a "state of 
emergency" lockdown at the time (no showers, no 
law library, no exercise, and sack lunch food). I 
was put in ad-seg where guards threatened my life. 
For two months I was locked down. 

Then I was transferred to another yard. The bogus 
"write-up" was dismissed. A few months later, as I 
began involving myself in more legal and political 
activism. I was harassed constantly for a month 
(cell moves, searches, interference with 
privileges, etc.) until I stood up to the pigs and 
demanded some common respect and human dignity. 
How dare I have the audacity to act like a man 
with self-respect and pride! I was rushed and 
severely beaten by guards with billy clubs. Thrown 
in the hole and falsely charged with assault. That 
was 8/22/92. 

Since that time, I have been shot at and had my 
life threatened by CDC officials, been beaten, 
tortured, framed for crimes, given additional 
prison time (I only had seven years for robbery) 
and facemasked, isolated, ostracized, etc. I have 
so far been given ten years to serve in SHU and 
will probably never get out as I've also been 
falsely labeled a "gang member." So I came to 
prison with "seven years," and should have paroled 
last year, but now I have a life term to solitary 
confinement and torture. It's only a countdown to 
death by deterioration or execution.

On 1/7/94 in a so-called "cell extraction," I was 
beaten and nearly crippled (head and knees beat 
with clubs). Upon arrival at Pelican Bay, when the 
convicts get off the bus, there's about 30 or so 
guards with clubs (two for each prisoner), and 
they have you put your nose on the wall while they 
scream out profanity, humiliation and rude jokes, 
just hoping you say something or turn your head so 
they can beat your head in. (Even though you're 
shackled and handcuffed). It's really sick 
witnessing these cowards getting their jollies 
doing this. Then you are placed in a cell, butt-
naked, until some clothes are issued to you.

I could describe more details and additional 
atrocities, but what good will it do?! I guess 
only to demonstrate the necessity of resistance, 
and the consequences of it as well.

Please send me MIM Theory, party literature from 
Peru and the Philippines, etc., plus any 
additional info you feel I could use. I look 
forward to your reply.

From the dungeon,

 - a California prisoner, 1/27/95

MC49 ADDS: You got the idea: exposing the 
imperialists' crimes helps to build public opinion 
for their eventual overthrow. Also, your 
experience of being punished for exercising your 
"Constitutional rights of free speech" shows why 
MIM says that there are no rights, only power 
struggles.


PRISONER REJECTS GUINEA PIG TACTICS

I trust this missive finds you all in positive 
health, a revolutionary train of thought and in 
the pursuit of liberation, justice and equality.

I can attest to the fact that our oppressors are 
at the acme of corruption, exploitation and 
genocidal tactics to undermine the Black masses 
through systematic chemical and biological 
warfare.

A prime example of what I'm speaking about is as 
follows: On 12/21/94, I went to the facility 
hospital and a nurse demanded that I submit to 
taking a routine T.B. test. But a routine T.B. 
test is annual, and I took one this year, before I 
had knowledge of what the real test consists of.

I said no, because I am a conscientious objector 
to guinea pig tactics. She asked, "Well, do you 
know what that means?" I said yes, whenever 
someone demands that I submit to a test to see if 
the potency or efficiency of an anti-disease 
vaccine or antidote works - just as the guinea pig 
- then my moral sense and conscientiousness 
automatically objects! Especially when the needle 
is already prepared with the liquid substance in 
it and I didn't see where it came from....

What in hell do you think they would do to an 
entire prison population who the government 
defines as "outlaws" and people not fit for their 
society. They already tested a prison in Ohio as 
guinea pigs under a similar drug. And the infamous 
Attica prison here in New York. 

Now with the corrupt history of exploitation in 
this country, how do they expect me to submit and 
cooperate with being victimized and oppressed? I 
refuse to be counted amongst the broken men! There 
are many comrades who are struggling against this 
repression, but the pigs have too many informants 
and ignorant cowards masquerading as men. Broken 
brothers with no sense of direction, chasing an 
Amerikan dream with white plastic faces, in a land 
dominated by pigs with white plastic faces. How is 
a brother like me supposed to react?

I've been in rebellion all my life. It would be 
counterproductive for me to stop combating the 
dehumanizing reality of these beasts' oppression. 
Even if I die in the struggle to transcend 
oppression and transform the savage conditions 
that we Black people face in Amerikkka, then the 
struggle must continue with greater effort to 
bring this oppressive force to its knees and 
demise. This is the dynamic of a revolutionary 
struggle formed out of perfect love for my 
beautiful Black Nation and perfect hate for the 
fascist pig and his dehumanized, devilish nation!

I've been held captive in these depths of hell 
since the age of 14. I'm now 20 and my mother 
thinks I'm too young to be filled with so much 
hate, anger and animosity. I told her, "Not when 
you experience a bay of pigs stabbing you in the 
back with a nine-inch knife and then they take it 
out three inches and call that 'progress.'" I beg 
your pardon! You don't repress an entire people 
100 ways and take three ways off and call it 
progress. There's only one ultimatum, and that's 
liberation or death. The only thing the devil 
respects is fire and with the people as my 
witness, let's burn the pig to hell!

I'm still receiving MIM Notes; keep them coming. I 
also successfully started two study groups, using 
my personal books and literature on Mao, Fanon, 
George Jackson, Prosser, Turner, Castro, Marx, 
Lenin, Malcolm X, Kuumba, etc. I would appreciate 
any material on the Black Panthers, American 
Indian Movement, BLA and other revolutionary 
organizations. I also request Agents of 
Repression, The Dragon Has Come, Assata, Elaine 
Brown's Taste of Power, and Soul on Ice. Any of 
the above will be appreciated. I know there are 
many comrades who request material, and I 
understand MIM's financial situation, so all is 
good.

Peace comrades,

 - a New York prisoner, 12/29/94


PRISONCRATS DIVIDE, BUT CANNOT CONQUER

Greetings comrades,

I just received the MIM Notes. And I would like to 
thank you very much for your time. Like I told you 
in other letters, I'm in the Baltimore Supermax. 
The same old shit is still going on here, now with 
a new warden. I have tried to build MIM in this 
supermax. I have tried to start a study group and 
tried to get MIM Notes into the library. But it is 
like this: the library here is not for us. And the 
inmates do not have anything on their mind. 

Now the comrades, the ones who do come together, 
the pigs move us around. When pigs see some of us 
that have unity, they do not want us together, so 
they move us around about every three weeks. But 
us true brothers who are about the struggle, we 
will not give up. We keep moving on. We do not 
have any time for bullshit, so for the ones who 
want to be about the struggle, and be for real 
about the struggle, all is well. Time is for real, 
and we've got to be real. 

In this supermax it is a must that we be in our 
most positive state of existence, mentally, 
physically, etc. It is a must that we be in sound 
mind and body at all times. We've got to keep head 
and shoulder above dumbshit. We who are true about 
the struggle here in the supermax, we know what 
time it is. Now for the ones who do not know what 
time it is, they will see the light one day. In 
here, all we have time for is to read, read and 
read. But most people in here just play all day 
and all night and talk a lot of bullshit. Can't 
they see that the pigs are making more and more 
supermaxes? ...

I'm going to end this letter for now, but I will 
get back at you again really soon. The struggle is 
my life, and in the struggle I remain. I leave you 
with the best of revolutionary regards. The 
struggle continues. Forward ever, backward never.

 - a Maryland prisoner, 12/20/94


PRISONER RAPS BOURGEOIS MEDIA

Letters to the Editor
The Atlanta Constitution
P.O. Box 4689
Atlanta, GA 30302

Dear Editor:

Don't you people ever get tired of bamboozling the 
public? People rely on the press for *factual* 
information and all they seem to receive is 
driveling, one-sided propaganda.

I'm an inmate at USP Atlanta, serving a sentence 
that expires in 2006, and what's being imparted as 
"factual" information to the public just isn't 
true. Contrary to what was printed, there were not 
180 inmates in C-Block when Officer Washington was 
assaulted. Every inmate here, unless medically 
unassigned, is required by Bureau of Prison Policy 
to have a prison work detail. Work Call occurs at 
approximately 7:45 a.m., and other than a few 
inmates that work second and third shift details, 
the units are practically empty. What was reported 
was just nonsense. If there had been 180 inmates 
in C-Block when Officer Washington was assaulted, 
there would have been a line standing a the 
Lieutenant's office waiting to inform on the 
inmate or inmates involved. The simple fact of the 
matter is (and you can bet the FBI is aware of 
this) that whomever assaulted Officer Washington 
was able to do so stealthily, without prying eyes: 
a conclusion which is supported by the fact that 
Officer Washington's assault occurred so quickly 
that he could not activate his body alarm - an 
action which only requires a press of a button. 
This indicates that he was "moved on." To be 
"moved on" like that requires both preparation and 
privacy.

Your paper also reported that there were 85 
officer-related assaults here within the last 
year. This is another piece of statistical 
garbage. The type of incidents included in this 
statistic is much like this: An inmate gets into a 
verbal altercation with a Corrections Officer for 
whatever reason. The inmate is thrown to the floor 
for "security reasons," and his head placed in a 
choke-hold, while an assisting officer cuffs the 
inmate's hands behind his back. Instead of 
immediately releasing the choke-hold, because the 
inmate is now under mechanical restraint and of no 
harm to himself or anyone else, the Corrections 
Officer applies a little more pressure in 
vindictiveness. Somehow the inmate gets his mouth 
in the right place and tries to take a bite out of 
his antagonist's arm. Of course, the officer lets 
loose. But he doesn't stop there. He stands up and 
begins to kick the inmate about his head and body 
with steel-toed boots, and continues to do so 
until he is either pushed off by a more 
responsible officer or tires himself out. Pictures 
are subsequently taken of the inmate's injuries, 
the bruises and abrasions. This now places the 
Corrections Officer in an awkward position. Unless 
he files an incident report against the inmate for 
a physical altercation the Officer initiated, he 
may get transferred to another facility for using 
excessive force. With the issuance of the Incident 
Report, his excessive force is deemed as 
justifiable and the inmate is placed in 
segregation.

Another example is the jerk in uniform who 
unnecessarily puts his hands on an inmate, in 
violation of BOP Policy, and gets pushed away. 
This officer also claims he was "assaulted" to 
cover his butt.

These are the type of incidents your paper reports 
to the public as being 85 officer-related 
assaults. While the facts are that most of these 
"assaults" could have been avoided if Corrections 
Officers had followed BOP Policy and Procedure, 
instead of thinking they're in a Tough Man 
competition. The true fact is that there has not 
been a "serious" officer-related assault here 
since 1987, and it has been 12 years since an 
officer was killed.

As for Officer Washington, I doubt if the public 
will ever be told the true reason behind his 
death. It will be more in line with the BOP's 
propaganda doctrine to mislead the public into 
believing that what happened was a random assault 
for arbitrary and capricious reasons. They will 
never tell you that Officer Washington was 
investigated for having made advances to female 
visitors here. That he had a smart mouth, a bad 
attitude, and had a habit of behaving in a non-
professional manner with inmates. And they won't 
tell you that even this wasn't the reason someone 
laid in wait for him and pealed his head.

Why don't you, the media, demand an inquiry and 
find out the truth? Or don't you think the public 
has a right to know about how many officers are on 
the take in here?

Don't you think the public has a right to know 
that based on media-generated hysteria over rising 
crime, they have been bamboozled into taking away 
our "hope." Don't you think the public has a right 
to know the true facts?

FACT: There are more inmates serving longer 
sentences than any other time in the history of 
this country, and it is doing *nothing* to stem 
the allegedly rising crime rate.

FACT: There are more inmates serving "life" 
sentences, without the possibility of parole, than 
any other time in the history of the United 
States, and these "life sentence" laws are not 
having any deterrent effect.

FACT: Recent studies prove that although the U.S. 
prison population has more than doubled from 1980 
to 1990, the numbers of violent crime (murder, 
rape, robbery and assault) stayed relatively 
constant.

FACT: The U.S. presently has the highest 
incarceration rate of all nations in the First 
World, at a rate of 658 people incarcerated per 
100,000.

FACT: There are over *one million* people 
incarcerated in the United States, and this figure 
grows larger daily.

FACT: Recent studies prove that more prisons and 
long-term sentences do not act as a deterrent in 
the prevention of crime.

FACT: Inmates are being warehoused in overcrowded 
facilities for longer terms, facing no relief in 
sight, resentment, and an atmosphere of violence 
and abuse that Correction Officers perpetrate, 
create, cultivate and encourage among inmates.

FACT: Over 50% of the present Federal prison 
population is incarcerated for a violation of the 
new drug laws.

FACT: Over 85% of this 50% are Black and Hispanic.

FACT: As much as 25% of this 50% are incarcerated 
with sentences in excess of ten years for 
possession of narcotics in amounts less than one 
ounce.

FACT: There is just as much drug trade occurring 
behind the walls of the United States 
Penitentiary, Atlanta, as there is on the streets.

FACT: There is heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, 
marijuana, steroids, needles and syringes, 
prophylactics, guns and ammunition, and these 
things are brought into here, in quantity, by 
corrupt correction officers profiting at the 
expense of our misery.

These are the cold, hard facts!

To use a biblical expression, you reap what you 
sow. If things continue as they are, there will be 
an incident where hundreds of slavering brutes, of 
society's creation, breach these concrete barriers 
and invade your apathetic little lives to return 
upon you the miseries and atrocities you, society, 
have suffered upon us under the guise of 
"justice."

You reap what you sow. Inmates serving life 
sentences will eventually realize that as long as 
they are serving a sentence which they can never 
complete, they cannot be subjected to the 
penalties of a consecutive sentence, such as a 
death sentence imposed for killing a corrections 
officer, and go on a rampage slaying a corrections 
officer every other day.

But maybe this is what you, society, need. Maybe 
then, the combination of misery (experienced by 
the families of the slain officers) and death will 
make the $27,500 annual salary seem less alluring 
and suggest to the American public that more and 
larger prisons, and longer sentences are not 
viable alternatives as a replacement for less 
employment resulting from the demise of Cold War 
industry. When prisons cease to be "big business" 
and a means of re-employing those left unemployed 
by a declining military, defense industry and 
production industry, productive alternatives to 
long-term incarceration will be sought.

You reap what you sow. The bottom line is that 
society needs to accept responsibility for their 
actions (and for Officer Washington's death). The 
media, being their voice, needs to provide facts, 
instead of manipulating the public with 
repetitious propaganda designed to induce 
hysteria, so that productive decisions are made 
instead of band-aid solutions.

Is violence the only way to get your attention?

A corrections officer was killed: the first here 
in 12 years. The first "serious" assault since 
1987. According to BOP sources, this is the most 
violent prison in the United States. What does 
this tell you? Don't you get the message? People, 
human beings, are dying; being *murdered*! And 
there will be more deaths; more murders.

The blood of Officer Washington is on your hands, 
Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Your band-aid 
solutions were responsible for his death. You are 
all accessories to his murder, just as surely as 
if you had taken the hammer and struck the killing 
blow yourselves. You have created a system without 
hope; one where life is cheap and death is 
commonplace. And there will be more deaths, more 
murders, and you will be equally responsible. 
Unless you initiate constructive change. Society, 
through the media, screamed that parole did not 
work. Of course it did not work: it was a system 
designed to promote the inmate's failure, not his 
successful re-entry and re-incorporation into 
society. But instead of debugging it and changing 
it so it performed its primary function, you 
scrapped it and decided to warehouse humans for 
longer periods and require that they serve 85% of 
their lengthy prison sentences.

Officer Washington's blood is on your hands. And 
you need to accept the reality of the situation: 
that there will be more blood and more deaths 
unless you take action. What is needed is for you, 
society, to wake up! Pay attention. Get concerned. 
Demand change. Find "productive solutions." Demand 
"productive solutions" and refuse to settle for 
anything less. It is your right as constituents in 
a democratic society. Because you need to remember 
that this blood won't wash off with quaint 
phrases, band-aid politics, or poor excuses. You 
need to ask yourselves what seeds are you sowing 
now? And are you prepared to harvest the plants 
that grow?

How about a reality check?

 - a Georgia prisoner, 12/27/94



STUDENTS AND MAOISTS BLOCK CIA RECRUITING

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is still 
intact, but its attempt to recruit potential 
agents of imperialism on the campus of the 
University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) 
suffered a setback last month after a 
demonstration organized by MIM and the Network for 
Public Education and Social Justice (NPESJ), a 
student group not affiliated with MIM.

At a demonstration March 1, MIM pointed out to 
UCLA students that the CIA's main purpose is to 
wage war on the world's oppressed nations by means 
of economic warfare, rigged elections, 
assassinations and genocide. MIM's critics 
countered that MIM and the demonstrators were 
infringing on the CIA's "rights." MIM says: There 
are no rights, only power struggles!

MIM does not advocate disrupting the "speech" of 
just any reactionaries. But it's not the "speech" 
of the CIA that commits mass murder and 
oppression. If all the CIA did was talk, MIM would 
just argue against them. It's the action - the 
recruiting of students to commit crimes against 
the people - that we oppose. If students can stop 
the CIA from spreading some of its poison - make 
the CIA's job a little harder - that's a power 
struggle, not an infringement of "rights." The 
oppressed and victims of the CIA have no "right" 
to "free" speech when they are dead, imprisoned, 
exploited and raped. Theirs is a struggle to end 
that oppression and win freedom for the world's 
vast majority.

There is a long history of students resisting the 
militarization of U.S. campuses, including CIA 
recruiting, military training and the development 
of genocidal weaponry. This effort is an important 
part of building popular student consciousness 
against imperialism.

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